a perfect pair of socks
by viviannnnn
Summary: Sasuke and Sakura. On finding the perfect match and pair of socks.--“You know, if you did wear socks—which you don’t—you’d have more than one pair.” One-Shot.


**A/N:** I really hope this makes sense to you guys. It's confusing—even for me cause I didn't understand half the things I was writing. But I do hope you enjoy it. Be my eyes for me and tell me if I have any mistakes.

**a perfect pair of socks**

She couldn't find them. But she could have sworn she left them on her bed before painting her nails. And they were bright as the sun, how could she possibly lose them?

"Sasuke! Have you seen my socks?"

He sat casually against the leg of her bed, twirling a purple rubber band he picked off the floor with his index finger. The man arched an eyebrow but didn't even spare her a glance. "You don't wear socks."

"Yes I do."

"No, you don't. None of us wear socks."

Sakura looked appalled at his comment. "What are you talking about? Of course, we do. Or well at least I do." She bent down and opened her 12th drawer, tossing aside her medical scrolls and textbooks. "It has to be around here."

Sasuke snorted and flicked the rubber band somewhere between the cracks of her desk and closet and continued to work on his crossword as he waited for his teammate to get ready.

The kunoichi whirled around and grabbed the closest thing her fingers can reach for (which happened to be a brush), twisted it and flicked her wrist, aiming for the man's head. "Get off your lazy ass and help me search for my socks!"

He frowned and easily dodged the offending object. "You know, if you did wear socks—which you don't—you'd have more than one pair."

His frown deepened when she smirked. "I do have more than one pair." She said, pulling out an unknown drawer. She grabbed a heap of cloth (Sasuke presumed them to be her socks) and shoved them into his arms. "I have 17 pairs." She announced as if they were trophies (as if she can be proud of them).

Sasuke stared at her with an incredulous quirk to his eyebrow and then moved his vision to the strings of socks that made themselves comfortable on his lap and arms.

"Why can you use one of these then?" He muttered, cautiously picking up a pair and setting them neatly aside. She was just so messy sometimes.

"They don't match each other."

Sasuke blinked and then examined the socks. She was right. None of them were paired up with their correct twin.

"You're an idiot."

"I am not." She bit back, glowering at him before picking apart her room to find that one pair of socks she knew she had. Biting her lip, she heaved a heavy sigh and pulled out a particularly large hamper. "I don't even want to go through this." She muttered, fingers gingerly tracing the edge of the hamper.

The man stared at her, trying to gouge her expression. He didn't know what her problem was but she couldn't possibly be this moody of socks. SOCKS.

"Then don't. You don't need to wear shoes. Wear your sandals." He rolled his eyes. "Like you have been for the past nineteen years."

Sakura, bristling at the comment, tightened her hold on her hamper. "I have socks, Sasuke."

He looked around the room. "I can see that." He said quietly, picking one up and tossing it into the hamper which she shielded with her body. "Just wear that one. They almost look the same."

"They're not even REMOTELY similar!" She shrieked, grabbing the socks and stretching them to emphasize her point. "Look!" She pointed to a pale purple on one sock and then to another pale purple on the other sock. Sasuke couldn't see what she was trying to get at.

"What? They look the same."

"No! This one is off-white plum while this one," She shoved the other sock in his face and Sasuke had to narrowly turn his head in effort to not being gagged by her sock, "is pale lavender."

"I don't see the difference, Sakura." He was starting to get tired not like he wasn't tired before-hand but seeing Sakura just made his exhaustion amplify by a large magnitude. And he didn't understand why she had to match her socks or why she was so set on wearing them to begin with. They're just socks.

"The difference? The difference is that it's not the same color. They're not even the same pattern! They don't match!" She shoved the hamper back into its secret hiding spot and turned around, crawling over to Sasuke. He snorted when she shot him an irritated look.

"Didn't you just paint your nails?"

Sakura stopped her moping and smiled. "You noticed?"

"It's hard not to. It's more like you painted your feet." Sasuke never thought he'd heard such a feral growl come from Sakura. Before he knew it, Sakura was gripping three bottles of nail polish whirling them in his direction. He managed to knock away all of them but had to twist out of the way to avoid the bottle of acetone.

"You're such an ass." She huffed momentarily forgetting that she was looking for her socks.

Sasuke ignored the comment. "Why are you wearing socks when you just painted your nails?"

"You mean my feet?" She corrected him, exasperatedly.

"I was kidding."

She threw him a glare and he gave her a smirk too smug for her liking. "Because, I always wear socks when we go out." She stood up and kicked her scrolls aside, grabbing a stray purple rubber band at the same time and tied up her hair.

Her teammate gave her a bemused look, his eyebrows coming together. "You didn't wear socks yesterday when we were out with Naruto."

Sakura stopped and shook her head. "When _we_ go out, Sasuke."

"Why? I don't mind you wearing sandals." He said dumbly.

"No." He was taken aback by her firm resolution to wear socks. "I need to wear socks when we go out and I need them to match."

"You know I don't care if your socks match or not." He muttered. "And we're only going to buy tomatoes." Sasuke lifted his head and stared at the clock, "which we're about two hours late."

Sakura brushed aside his observation with a dismissive wave. "I care if my socks match. If I can't find a match among my socks, what does that say about my love life?"

He was not following her. When did this topic digress to her love life? "What?"

"My love life, Sasuke. Of course, you wouldn't know." She was sitting across from him now, playing with her seventeen pairs of mismatched socks.

"What does that have to do with your socks?"

"Because I have one pair of socks that match." Sakura began to collect her socks and dumped them in an open drawer. Sasuke handed her the rest which she thanked silently. "Now, help me look for that one pair." She still hadn't answered his question but Sasuke let it drop. She'll answer him eventually.

"Come on, Sakura. I'll buy you a new pair." He pushed himself off from the ground and held out a hand for her.

The kunoichi licked her lips, tempted to give in. But she couldn't. There was a reason why she had seventeen pairs of socks and all but one of them matched. "No. I want my original pair." She answered as she grabbed his hand, allowing him to haul her up.

"Wouldn't it be better if you had two pairs? That way, the next time we go out if you're missing one—it won't take us another two hours to find it." Sasuke reasoned. He was still holding her hand but Sakura was oblivious to it all.

"I only want one pair of socks to match. I only need one pair to match." She said, letting go of his hand. He felt oddly cold as her fingers slipped away from his grasp.

"Why?"

Sakura laughed. "You've been asking that a lot today." Sasuke impatiently waited for her to answer and she threw her hands up in defeat. "Fine. I'll tell you, but you promise not to laugh."

"I don't laugh, Sakura." He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against her door frame as she did one last check of her room to see if her pink and blue socks mysteriously popped out.

"Whatever. Anyway, I only want one pair of socks to match because I only want one match with me." She looked up at him to see if he understood what she was saying. He clearly wasn't with his signature scowl on his lips. "If I have two pairs of socks that match that means I won't have one perfect match."

"But you can't find your supposed perfect match, so why can't I just buy you a new one?"

She groaned. "It's not about buying me a new one. It's about that particular sock, Sasuke. It's our sock. It's the sock that was there when we first went to eat at Ichiraku. It's the sock that was there when I first beat you—" Sasuke made a move to protest but Sakura shut him up with a fierce sneer, "it's the sock that was there when you first kissed me, you idiot!" She was huffing by the time she was finished with her tirade and the only thing Sasuke could do was wait for her. "So you see? That sock represents us, okay? And if I can't find that damn perfect matched up sock then we can't be a perfect match!"

Sasuke looked at her intently but she registered the faint incredulity from the dip of his lips. "You're basing our relationship off a pair of socks?"

Sakura wanted to cry. Even after her explanation, he still didn't get it.

Sasuke could see the frustration riding in her eyes and he gave her a soft smile. "Here." He reached into jacket and pulled out that looked anomalously like her pair of socks. The one she was looking for for the past two hours.

The medic gawked at him and all but lunged for the socks. She ripped them out of his hand and pressed them safely against her chest. "You ass!" She cried and now Sasuke was alarmed because she was really crying with tears and snot dripping and everything. "I thought I lost my perfect match!"

The man stood awkwardly, watching as she cradled her socks to her chest, her eyes splotchy and red from the ridiculous crying. He walked over to her and tenderly wiped away her tears. "I'm only going to say this once, Sakura. So listen, okay?" She nodded and her breathing was starting to even out and she hiccupped before Sasuke continued. "You don't—we don't—need that sock but since it gives you so much comfort—then it's fine."

"But…it's our sock." She sputtered in between breaths.

Sasuke shook his head and reached for her hand, pulling her along. Sakura staggered to keep up. "We'll be fine without it." They reached her front door and Sasuke released her hand. "Please don't take as long looking for your shoes as you did with your socks."

Sakura grumbled, sitting down to slip on her socks when she stopped and looked up at Sasuke. He wasn't paying attention to her and she turned back to her socks. If he had enough faith in them without her—their— sock then she couldn't be one to doubt him. She stood up and placed them on the arm rest of her couch.

"I don't think I need them today." She said softly and thought it was totally worth it for the smile on his face. Or smirk but it was larger and more genuine than the usual.

"I didn't think so." He replied. He stepped out first and Sakura followed. She gave one last look at her pair of pink and blue socks and glanced quickly at Sasuke. Closing the door, she skipped to over to him, gently tugging on his hand.

She found a match that was more than perfect than her pair of socks.


End file.
